The recto/verso frame
Here’s where we have to say a big thanks to Dean at John Jones who helped us solve the problem (and lessened the anxiety dreams) of how to frame double sided drawings.
There were a number of recto/verso drawings in the exhibition that were extremely fragile in their mounts this made framing them a nightmare and very important to get right. We also had the problem that the two alternate venues wanted to display the works in different ways.
Because the margin of error with these frames was so small they had to go between the V&A and John Jones many times before they were right, including a visit from Dean at 8:30am the Friday before they were to be packed.
Cheers Dean!
The magic taping machine
After much deliberation it was decided that we would frame and store ours and Chatsworth’s objects prior to travel. For ease of mounting and framing, where possible, we have standard sizes of frames. The frames were provided by the Royal Academy. Here is a pic of our recommended star buy – the taping machine! This made a very messy, sticky job much more efficient and clean, especially when we had to frame 70 objects in about a month.
Although framing gave us greater control of our objects and we had factored in the time it really is a horrible, frustrating and time consuming task – not recommended if you are a perfectionist and don’t like fluff behind your plexiglass! Just when you thought you’d got them all out another bit would appear.
For this job there is a definite dress code - no fluffy jumpers!
